newbie please help, interfaces and sound cards Options

[moxie39]

i have a powermac 8600/300 and have almost no money,i want to use cubase for recording live instruments and i am going to check out reason for that kind of thing.my question is how little can i get away with spending right now,what kind of interface and sound card will get me by until my budget improves and i can upgrade?do i need a souncard with reason?i just want to make some music.thanks so much for your patience with all of us newbies,it is very cool of you guys.

[Mr.T]

'i want to use cubase for recording live instruments and i am going to check out reason for that kind of thing.'
Cubase will be OK for recording, Reason definitely won't, it's not what it's made for. Reason won't allow you to record anything, it will only allow you to import previously recorded material. To make it short, Reason is some kind of a sampler(without the possibility to record anything)-synthetizer-effect processor-midi sequencer; it will only work with its own soundbank and AIFF-Wav files (sampler NN19) or Rex Files (from the bank or from Recycle).

'do i need a souncard with reason?'
Not necessarely, you can use the Mac's sound manager to monitor. If you want to later import some loops-songs from Reason into Cubase, the best way would be to remain in the digital domain->use Reason's export feature.

'how little can i get away with spending right now,what kind of interface and sound card will get me by until my budget improves'
I know there are plenty of cheap (in terms of price) cards available (Delta Audiophile...) but I'm not really a specialist in that area (I mostly work with pro & semi-pro equipment)...
Hang on I'm sure someone here wil give you more infos on this one...
Hope that helps.

[lepetitmartien]

Just to add to MrT's post:

Reason has a SAMPLE PLAYER not a SAMPLER

A sampler records, treats, cuts, chops, burns, twist and play samples

A sample player can do all this (but sometimes not ALL this) EXCEPT record the sample, and therefore use overwise recorded samples.

As, like MrT, I don't want to say bland stupidities bigger than I am (which is something I can tell you I let other more knowledgefull people tell you more on the unexpensive soundcards side. But have you search into the already there threads if there was one treating this (I think so

Hello,

This is my first post at Mac Music, so first allow me to introduce myself...

My name is Anthony Robertz aka 'The A Mann', I am presently a student taking Recording Arts and Production in Vancouver Canada, and I also have approx 10 years of experience in my own home studio. I am a self proclaimed Reason freak, Cubase & Protools user, and I will be more than happy to answer whatever questions anyone may have for me in this feild of disscussion.

NOW BACK TO THE QUESTION:

I know of, and heard 2 wonderful SoundCards that will be both, Functional for your needs(greatsounding, OS 9 & X compatable, versitile), and Very Inexpensive!!!!

Check out http://www.midiman.com and search their site for information on their 'M-Audio' sound cards,,,especially the Delta 44 and Delta 66.
This is a great company, who make very reliable and relatively inexpensive software and hardware for us computer music geeks/professionals.

Later...

___________________________________Amann_____________

Me again,,,,Back to help you with your question.

Cubase and Reason together make for a very strong combination! They both were made to work together using a technology called REWIRE. enabling you to use both programs together at the same time in real time.

I usually create all my fundemental music tracks using Reason. It comes with a 500MB+ sound bank and has literally hundreds of free downloadable 'ReFills' available on the net. It is true that Reason is not capable of recording any audio on its own, there is a variety of ways to import your own sounds and samples into Reason.... but if you are using Reason with Cubase you can 'ReWire' all your Reason tracks directly into Cubase and then record any 'outside' audio to your composition using Cubase audio recording capabilities.

This is a great time to also be using this Software as Both Cubase SX and Reason 2.0 (sounds great by BTW. I am beta testing it as we speak) are soon to be realeased!!!! THEY WILL BOTH BE OS X COMPATABLE!!!!
YIPPY!

Reason will be coming out in a few moths and Cubase SX is due to be released for Mac this fall....... So start saving for that SoundCard and begin networking to help you find and (aaahhem) 'borrow' the software to check out, until you are able to afford purchasing them for yourself.

Ciao.

_____________________________Amann____________________

[moxie39]

thanks for the info and link everyone,actually the reason i was asking about reason was so i would have something to mess around with while getting the sound card and interface together so that i could use cubase.i probably wouldn't have much use for reason after i got the live recording gear together.you've all been very helful.any ideas on a cheap ad interface? thanks again

QUOTE: 'i probably wouldn't have much use for reason after i got the live recording gear together' :UNQUOTE.

Bite your tongue young man!!!

I have got a great semi-professional home recording studio all set up for capturing high quality live audio tracks and belive me,,, Reason is still my Right Hand Man, especially when it comes to Drum Arrangments (drums being the bigest headache of them all to mike ect...), full Strings Sections, Grand Pianos, ect....

Reason is used by many, many, many professional producers and sound engineers all around the world. It has been easily recognized as a most invaluable tool to have in the studio., and for many good reasons(pardon the pun). 

After you begin to see all the posibilities that Reason will actually present to any of your recording efforts,  You will understand Why I am typing this right now....

!!!REASON IS NO TOY!!! (you'll see.  Have fun!)  

__________________________________________Amann_________

[moxie39]

i now see the REASONing behind your argument.thanks all.

[macmax]

Just to point otu the Pre G4 macs (especially beige ) Had built in Audio I/O
Only 16 bit 44.1 K stereo, and not amazing quality either, but sufficient for cash strapped muso to get going with.......
So all you need is the software........
You will only need to spend money if you want to seriously upgrade from there.
At that point it depndes on what your needs are as to what card would be recommended.....
if you only need 2 I/O then the Audiophile 24/96 is a good reference point to start looking from......
The field is enormous, , there is a table of audio cards (in french at present) posted on the site, although old and a little out dated, is still quite handy as long as your basic french is okay....
It is in the process of being updated into english, but wont be available for a little while yet.
and will be out of date almost faster than it can be re written, thanks to the industries fast rate of change....